Serena turns ankle in win; Djokovic quits
NEW YORK» Serena Williams was in pain — “acceptable” pain, her coach called it — after rolling her right ankle during the second set of a U.S. Open victory. That was the bad news. On a day that defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic pulled out of his match because of a problematic left shoulder, the good news for Williams as she pursues a seventh championship at Flushing Meadows and 24th Grand Slam singles title overall is that, while she reached the quarterfinals by beating No. 22 seed Petra Martic 6-3, 6-4 despite the ankle issue, No. 2 Ash Barty and No. 3 Karolina Pliskova both exited her side of the bracket Sunday.
Not that Williams seemed to care all that much about being one of only three of the top 12 seeded women who will still be around Monday.
“I can’t afford to look at it that way. Every single match I have played, people come and they play their best. The women that I play are not generally playing at this level against other players in the locker room, so for me, I have to be the greatest, whether it’s against the second seed, the No. 1 seed, or the No. 80th player in the world,” said Williams, who faces No. 18 Wang Qiang next. “I have to show up or else I’m going to go home.”
Williams, who turns 38 this month, appeared to be cruising along to a straightforward victory when she took an awkward step while up at the net for a volley. She tumbled to the ground and sat there, cross-legged, right in the middle of Arthur Ashe Stadium for a few moments.
Williams has dealt with various health issues all season, including one that ended her stay at the Australian Open.
Williams has not managed to complete a nonSlam tournament in 2019, withdrawing from each with one ailment or another, including a viral illness, a hurt left knee and, most recently, back spasms.
Pliskova, the 2016 U.S. Open runner-up, went home with a 6-7 (1), 6-3, 7-5 loss over nearly 2½ hours against 16th-seeded Johanna Konta of Britain.
This is the only Grand Slam tournament where Konta has yet to reach the semifinals; she’ll now meet No. 5 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, who got past 2017 runner-up Madison Keys of the U.S. 7-5, 6-4 Sunday night.
That was followed by Djokovic’s retirement against Stan Wawrinka in Sunday’s last singles match. Djokovic had been complaining that his left shoulder was hurting during the tournament, and he finally succumbed, stopping while trailing 6-4, 7-5, 2-1.
“The pain was constant for weeks now,” Djokovic said.
Wawrinka moves on to face Daniil Medvedev. Reprising his trolling role at Louis Armstrong Stadium, the No. 5-seeded Russian again begged the crowd to boo him even more after he beat qualifier Dominik Koepfer 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (2).
Earlier Sunday, Roger Federer kept up his recent surge, dominating No. 15 seed David Goffin 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 in just 79 minutes. That’s one fewer minute than it took him to put together a 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 win against Dan Evans in the previous round.